Anybody here have Dish Networks Hopper? Any experience with it and is it worth getting?

My Dad has decided to switch back to Dish Network from DirecTV because he is a fanatic for recording TV shows mostly those home and property improvement ones even though he is now unable to do most of the things they do.

Word on the street is that Windows Phone 8 will get its official launch on October 29th. When asked for confirmation, Microsoft issued a pretty standard "no comment," which is at least a small step better than an outright denial. With Windows 8 slated to land on October 26th, we wouldn't be surprised to see its portable counterpart hit the market just a few days later, as ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley is suggesting.

I was leaning towards getting the Lumia 920 but now I'm setting my sights on the HTC 8X . I've never had a major problems with a HTC phone.

The only thing I've found wrong with the 8X is that it has no micro-SD slot like the 8S does but the 8X has double the internal memory than the 8S does (8GB). Of course you still have cloud services like SkyDrive and DropBox.

heh so it's NOT just me.... I can distinguish that he's talking and that the phone is playing music, and they even have different tone and brightness, but my brain just refuses to lock on to one or the other. I have similar problems with restaurants, I get snatches of conversation from everywhere, but they each invade each other.

Nokia Corp., looking to increase use of its mapping software, will unveil a new deal with Oracle Corp. intended to give Oracle’s stable of customers access to Nokia’s growing vault of map data and location services.

In a new court filing with the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Amazon asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple’s false-advertising claim, arguing again that the term “app store” is now so commonplace as to be generic. And in using it to promote its “Appstore” mobile software developer program and the associated download service, Amazon isn’t misleading anyone.

“The use of the term ‘app store’ to refer to stores selling apps is commonplace in the industry,” Amazon wrote in its filing, adding that Apple’s own executives have used it generically on a number of occasions. “Apple presumably does not contend that its past and current CEOs made false statements regarding those other app stores to thousands of investors in earnings calls.”

In other words, if, as Apple claims, “consumers of mobile software downloads are likely to be confused as to whether Amazon’s mobile software download service is sponsored or approved by Apple,” then CEO Tim Cook and his predecessor, Steve Jobs, have themselves perpetuated that confusion.

The MBP was reluctant to boot up, even into safe mode. I did manage to enable target mode though, and access the drive over FireWire, then used Diskwarrior to rebuild the directory. This allowed me to log into her user account, and create a new admin account which works as it should.

Now to recreate her main account, from a backup, without admin permissions

Microsoft is preparing to launch its Xbox Music service on October 26th. Multiple sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have confirmed the new service will launch at the same time as Windows 8. We're told that subscriptions, like the current Zune Music Pass offering, will be available alongside a free streaming service supported by ads — similar to Spotify. The service will be available on Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Xbox 360.

A key part of the service is Microsoft's SkyDrive integration that will allow users to store music and playlists in a cloud collection — available across multiple devices. Although Microsoft has plans to offer Xbox Music across multiple platforms, including iOS and Android, apps will not be immediately available we're told. Microsoft is also planning to launch an Xbox dashboard update to support Xbox Music on its console.

We reported a few weeks ago that T-Mobile had no intention of letting the iPhone 5's smaller nano-SIM card interfere with its newly-bolstered plans to woo unlocked iPhone owners over to its network, and now we've received confirmation that the carrier's stores have begun receiving stock of the new SIM cards. Several T-Mobile stores in New York City informed us that the diminutive SIM cards were delivered today, but if you're interested in moving your iPhone 5 to T-Mobile you would do best to call your local store first: a couple of locations told us that it would take a day to add the cards to their inventory. Stock also appears to be limited at this point — one store employee said they had ten nano-SIMs available.

T-Mobile's least expensive unlimited data, talk, and text plan for unlocked phones comes in at $69.99 per month, but before you decide to make the switch there are sticking points to take note of. Since the vast majority of T-Mobile's HSPA+ ("4G") network runs on the AWS band — a band which no iPhones support — you'll be stuck at far slower 2G speeds in most of the country. The carrier has begun offering iPhone-friendly 1900MHz HSPA+ service in parts of Seattle, Las Vegas, and the New York metro area, which are the only spots where you'll get faster service. Additionally, you'll need an unlocked device like Verizon's iPhone 5 for service to even function — Apple has yet to sell the latest iPhone unlocked without a contract in the US, and AT&T iPhones ship locked to the carrier.